For those of you using the Ferber method or cry it out PLEASE read this

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Renae - posted on 12/24/2009

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While I am not disagreeing with you. I would like to add that there is no statistical (i.e. proper research) psychological research that has managed to prove that CIO causes any long term emotional damage. Psychologists continue to research this and try to find evidence, but so far noone has.

What Psychologists do know is that stress indicators (the things that tell them a person is distressed such as increased levels of certain hormones and 'brain chemicals") increase dramatically during control crying (Ferber method). Most psychologists agree that the level of stress the baby reaches is unexceptable, this is why they disagree with control crying.

I would also like to clear up that it is not the crying that causes the increased stress. It is the fact that the parent continues to come in to the baby and then leave again. It is when the parent leaves that the baby's stress levels peak. With control crying the parent continually comes and goes and every time they leave again the baby becomes more and more distressed.

There is however an alternate method of CIO where the baby does not become distressed and stress levels do not rise nearly as much. This is cry interpretation where the babies cries are carefully listened to and the parents go in to settle them if the cry becomes distressed. I am not saying this is for everyone, but there are cases when this is the only option, such as when a sleep disorder causes such sleep deprivation for the baby that the baby's development is highly delayed. In these cases CIO with cry interpretation is, in my opinion, better than the alternative which is drugs (and sometimes hospitalisation) because eventually they need to learn to sleep without the drugs.

I think that many people use the Ferber method or CIO because they are unaware that they have other options. There are several no-cry options available. No-cry options take longer and require some patience, but (in my opinion) should always be tried first without resorting straight to CIO. In my opinion CIO should be reserved for extreme cases as the majority of infant sleep disturbance can be solved without crying.